World Leaders Call for Ambitious U.S. and Other G-7 Commitments to Global Partnership for Education


Washington, DC, June 5, 2014—As the G-7 convenes in Brussels, a group of global leaders and some of the foremost development experts called on G-7 leadership to recommit to the world’s most vulnerable children through a successful replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education. The signers of the open letter to the G-7 include 13 members of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Advocacy Group on the Millennium Development Goals. Today’s letter comes on the heels of calls from the U.S. Congress and civil society for the Obama Administration to commit $250 million to the Global Partnership for Education over two years.

“The United States has lagged far behind its peers in support for the Global Partnership for Education,” said Joanne Carter, Executive Director of RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund, praising the letter. “Now is the chance for USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and President Barack Obama to make a commitment to the Global Partnership for Education that answers the calls of global leaders and development experts, civil society, the U.S. Congress, and the millions of children worldwide whose futures depend on it.”

Government representatives from the G-7, other donor countries, and developing countries will all convene later this month to make pledges to the Global Partnership for Education, which supports poor and conflict-affected countries in implementing sound national education plans. The open letter’s signers called on the G-7 to use the pledging moment to reverse recent deeply worrying downward trends in support for education globally.

Currently 57 million primary school-aged children are still out of school, and a full 250 million children—nearly 40% of the world’s boys and girls—lack the most basic reading and counting skills. The recent kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria and the international outcry in response have highlighted the enormous challenges faced by children and their families, underscoring the need for global support for education.

“Compounding this picture is the unacceptable decline in aid to basic education, particularly in the poorest countries, and the global community risks breaking our promise to the world’s most vulnerable children,” the signers of the letter explain. The world is far off track on the second Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education, but the letter calls the Global Partnership for Education’s upcoming pledging conference an “opportunity to course correct on education.”

The Global Partnership for Education aims to raise $3.5 billion from donors, which will in turn unlock an additional $16 billion from developing country partners. If successful in its replenishment campaign, the Global Partnership is positioned to support countries in providing quality education for at least 29 million children, the majority of whom live in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Last week, 81 members of the U.S. Congress called on President Obama and USAID Administrator Shah to commit $250 million over two years to the Global Partnership, which would move the United States closer to the level of support shown by other donor governments.

“The Global Partnership for Education stands ready to tackle the world’s education crisis,” said Carter. “The U.S. government and other world leaders simply can’t afford to miss this opportunity to help transform the lives of 29 million children through education.”

The letter signers include:

Erna Solberg, Prime Minister of Norway, Co-chair
Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries (India)
Stine Bosse, Board member of Allianz Group and Vice Chairman of ChildFund Alliance
Ray Chambers, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria (United States)
Young-shim Dho, Chairperson of UNWTO ST-EP Foundation & UN MDGs Advocate
Philippe Douste-Blazy, United Nations Special Advisor on innovative financing for development (France)
Julio Frenk, Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, former Minister of Health of Mexico
Bob Geldof, Singer, songwriter, political activist (United Kingdom)
Jeffrey Sachs, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the MDGs (United States)
Marina Silva, Environmentalist and politician (Brazil)
Ted Turner, Chairman of UN Foundation
Hiromasa Yonekura, Chairman of Sumitomo Chemical and of the Japan Business Federation / Keidanren
Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, founder of the Grameen Bank (Bangladesh)

The letter is available online here.


RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund

RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund are sister organizations that, together, are a leading force in ending poverty in the United States and around the world. We create long-term solutions to poverty by supporting programs that address its root causes — lack of access to medical care, education, or opportunity to move up the economic ladder. We do this by empowering ordinary people to become extraordinary voices for the end of poverty in their communities, the media, and the halls of government. The collective voices of these passionate grassroots activists, coordinated with grass-tops efforts driven by our staff, leverage millions of dollars for programs and improved policies that give low-income people the tools they need to move out of poverty.

Contact:
Colin Smith
[email protected]
+1 202.783.4800 x139

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